Luke Scientiæ
Below is the full list of the 2012 Republican presidential candidates and their opinions on two key scientific issues: climate change and evolution.
A number of discussions online (e.g. here, here, here and here) have looked at one or more of the candidates and one or more of these subjects, but I thought a fuller list would be useful. This post is intended as a guide only, not a comprehensive analysis of each candidate’s position. Please send suggestions if you have additional sources that would add to what is here already, or if you spot inaccuracies.
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Kalam Cosmological Argument (KCA) gets rolled out time and again by monotheists as a sophisticated reason to believe in god. According to an administrator on WhyIslam.org, “it has confused the greatest minds in Islam”. Some advertisement.
Roughly, the “argument” goes like this:
- Whatever begins to exist, has a cause of its existence.
- The universe began to exist.
- Therefore, the universe has a cause of its existence.
The idea is to go on and show that this “deduced” cause must be God, whatever one might want that to mean. I won’t waste time on that, since the first part – the cause bit – is so rotten on its own it hardly matters what gets stacked on top of it.
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Science documenataries weren’t always what they are today. This fascinating new clip from New Scientist (the YouTube channel is here) discusses how science films were made a hundred years ago. For a start, they were only one minute long only and made more to amaze than explain. But the result was very interesting indeed, featuring some startling images and showcasing wonderful innovations in filming.
(via Punctuated Equilibrium)
Update: 29th August 2011
Here is the birth, life and death of hurricane Irene, starting 19th August, as receorded by the geostationary weather satellite GOES-13.
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The following is a series of excellent, clear videos by standup4REALscience on YouTube. They introduce the theory of evolution, including human evolution. I’m particularly glad to see the ample references to genetics, which provides some of the best evidence. It’s a shame that other, even more recent introductions to evolution do not make a greater effort to popularize the genetic aspects of evolutionary science.
Here is part 1 of 5, which primarily discusses the fusion in human chromosome 2 (see below for other parts):
The other evolution videos by standup4REALscience:
- Evolution is REAL Science #2: (using the example of why primates can’t make their own vitamin C)
- Evolution is REAL Science #3: (using the example of endogenous retroviruses (ERVs))
- Evolution is REAL Science #4: (intermediate forms in the fossil records)
- Evolution is REAL Science #5: (studies in fossils for different species)
The authors of the videos have a blog dedicated to the teaching of real science in US classrooms.
Perry’s grades from Texas A&M are available, and they don’t make pretty reading. C in American history, D in economics. He got a D and an F in my field, organic chemistry; C in vertebrate zoology
Is it a co-incidence that Perry is pretty much an anti-science sorta guy? (Climate change denial, anti-evolution and pro “intelligent design”: “I am a firm believer in intelligent design as a matter of faith and intellect, and I believe it should be presented in schools alongside the theories of evolution.”)
(Click image to view larger version.)
Climate change deniers are fond of repeating how it is that the climate hasn’t warmed since 1998, or otherwise that we’re presently in a “cool period”, or that it’s beginning to cool. Both are complete baloney. Greenman3610, a.k.a. Peter Sinclair, excells at making accessible videos that debunk this sort of nonsense. The one below is the latest tackling the “cold period” fallacy. Sinclair deserves an award for his videos.
Consider the following options
Skeptically Speaking Radio Archive
